


Dina, Dina (Bye, Catalina)

by squishysquid



Series: Dina and a Lovestruck (not official) Astronaught [1]
Category: The Last of Us, The Last of Us 2 - Fandom
Genre: Ellie - Freeform, F/F, LGBT, Lesbian, Lesbian Romance, Romance, Spoilers, The Last of Us - Freeform, Zombie, dina - Freeform, ellie williams, ellie x dina, mild violence, post apocalyptic, the last of us 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:54:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25278829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squishysquid/pseuds/squishysquid
Summary: ***Warning, please read notes at the beginning***The story starts off where part of The Last of Us 2’s ending left. Ellie is on her way back from California and recalls various memories between her and Dina. Their relationship, once secure, is now contended by Ellie's decision to leave and chase after Abby. She must now face the implications of her decision and decide what to do in order to be happy, which only seems possible if Dina is in her life.(mild violence, swear words, and sexual content in later chapters.)
Relationships: Dina & Ellie (The Last of Us), Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Series: Dina and a Lovestruck (not official) Astronaught [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1831393
Comments: 2
Kudos: 76





	Dina, Dina (Bye, Catalina)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, guys. I have some sad news. =( After struggling with writing the later chapters to this story, I realize that the plot is not headed in the trajectory that I'd like it to. Therefore, I'm abandoning this series, BUT I will be creating another series featuring Ellie and Dina! I'm sorry for this, but I think the new series will be much better. =)

“Oh. I like that one,” Dina says. She points to a calico cat balancing itself across the railway of one of Jackson’s many lodges. It walks, one foot landing where the other just stepped, across the wooden plank. “I’ve seen it here a lot of times. I nicknamed her Coral.”

Ellie momentarily pauses sketching in her journal to glance up at the cat. For a second, it looks back at her. With the image of its face in her mind, she quickly draws it on an empty page.

“Shit, I messed its mouth up,” Ellie says. She looks back up to see the cat jumping away and timidly running into an alleyway.

Dina scoots over towards her friend, making the otherwise vacant spaces on the bench more apparent. She looks down at the sketch. “I don’t think so. She does have an oddly shaped mouth. Reminds me of a cartoon character I used to watch on those old VHS tapes.”

Ellie lightly snorts. She recalls Joel teasing her over the silly faces she’d make whenever she shrugs at him. “It reminds me of me.”

Dina breaks into a laugh. “You’re so silly.” She continues giving off a soft giggle as she turns away to look back at the lodges.

Ellie smiles as she looks over at Dina. Today is one of their first days spent between just the two of them. Ellie enjoys spending time with this specific friend of hers - especially when she could make her laugh. Something about the experience made her stomach flutter and heart beat rapidly.

“Dina, don’t you have to go?” Ellie asks.

Dina turns her face to catch Ellie’s eye. “No. Why do you ask?”

“It’s just you have patrol tomorrow. I’d hate to make you miss sleep,” Ellie says.

Dina reassuringly smiles at her friend. “I planned for that. You don’t have to worry about me. Plus, I really like spending time with you.”

A blush flourishes over Ellie’s cheeks as she registers the words. Without much thought, she impulsively asks “why?”

Dina gives her a puzzled look before breaking back into a smile again. “Because you’re nice… sometimes. Sometimes your jokes irk me, but otherwise I always seem to feel happy when I’m around you.”

Ellie pauses for a moment. The memories of Sam, Riley, Cat, and countless other previous friends flash through her mind. The fear of loss was introduced to her at an early age, and it developed into these feelings of dread and insecurity whenever she started becoming closer to someone. Despite the look of sincerity on Dina’s face at the present moment, she could sense the awful feelings emerging.

“Will you always be happy to be around me?” Ellie asks.

Dina gives Ellie a warm yet serious look. She begins to speak, ceding any hint of jest in her tone. It was a way of speaking that wasn’t typical of her due to her light and humorous personality. “Always, Ellie,” she says.

\---

“Always, always…” Ellie says as she lays down in the bed of an abandoned RV. She repeats the word that Dina once said to her when they first became friends. The word ultimately decrescendos into a whisper and then into something inaudible. Once silent, she merely mouths the word and thinks about it intently. _Always, always, always_ … Instability is the only _always_ that seems present in Ellie’s life. Its presence is as immutable as conflict and infection.

Moonlight peaks through the broken window of the abandoned vehicle. Ellie found it on the highway on her way back up to Wyoming. A few shards of glass and patches of dust covers the inside, but otherwise it is a nice place to rest for the night. When day breaks, Ellie plans to walk a considerable distance. She only recently crossed the California-Nevada border because she had to recover after her final encounter with Abby. 

_Would she even tolerate seeing me?_ Ellie thinks. She imagines Dina’s face, once so welcoming and happy to see her, turn sour at the moment she notices it's her ex-girlfriend at their farmhouse door. Even after begging, Ellie still won’t be let in. In fact, in this daydream, Dina screams for her to leave.

 _Would anyone tolerate seeing me?_ Ellie thinks of seeing Tommy and explaining what happened between her and Abby - how she ultimately couldn't finish what she gave up so much to start. The thoughts bring this sickening anxiety to her. She could imagine the look of disappointment and anger across his face as he listens to her, and the mental image makes her stomach wrench in stress.

_Maybe everyone would be better off without me..._

\---

The scene shifts. Instead of an RV, Ellie is in an abandoned hotel a few kilometers away from Jackson. She made it there last night, after traveling for weeks along the interstate. She sleeps in one of the disheveled beds until a loud groan permeates throughout the building.

Her eyes quickly open, and she immediately grabs her pocket knife from the nightstand. The walls of the hotel are dilapidated to the point that large holes exist, granting Ellie the ability to see parts of the hallway. A clicker is making its way through, moving uncomfortably close to the door.

“Motherfucker,” Ellie says underneath her breath. She slides off the bed, tip-toeing towards the entrance. She immediately unlocks her room’s door and lunges at the infected. It begins screaming in pain, even as Ellie stabs her knife into its neck.

“Shut up. Shut up!”

Ellie kicks it away, and it violently convulses. As she stands in the hallway, more rattles and groans are heard.

Ellie breaks into a sprint to go back into the room. She grabs her jacket; as she begins clothing herself with it, a runner peaks around the doorway. Her hand quickly grabs her pistol, and shoots it.

She sees her bullet entered through its head, resulting in blood and brain matter exploding across the door. Ellie turns to get her backpack and then breaks back into a run. Just as she turns into the main corridor, a large gang of infected appear in front of her.

“Shit,” she says. She goes into a disoriented twist and lunges in the other direction, eventually making her way outside onto a fire escape. She quickly descends onto the ground floor, but two hunters appear a level higher than. They crawl on all fours to the side of the railing, readying themselves to pounce on her. At the sight of them, Ellie unzips her backpack and retrieves a molotov cocktail and lighter.

Her fingers shakily flick down the grind-wheel, but only fleeting sparks appear. Her heart beats more quickly, and her vision becomes clouded. After a few more clumsy attempts, a steady flame appears, and she ignites the alcohol soaked cloth protruding from the bottle on fire. She fumbles, getting up and walking away. As she does so, her body partly turns in order for her arm to throw the cocktail at the exit of the staircase.

The bottle shatters, and the surrounding grass, carnage, and trash immediately catch on fire. The runners pounce but are engulfed in flames. After a few seconds of trying to crawl, they collapse onto the ground and begin rolling and screaming hysterically.

Ellie still continues to run and jumps over the fence that encircled the hotel. She makes her way down a road, swerving around and occasionally hopping over abandoned cars. After a few minutes of this, she stops to crouch down. Her breathing is uneven and shallow, causing her vision to go black.

A dizzying cough escapes her lips only to be accompanied by further ones. The violent spasms escaping from her throat make the incompletely healed wound in her stomach sting. She continues into her coughing fit, and eventually collapses onto the road. _Fuck. Get up!_

“Ellie?” A voice shouts out. “Ellie!”

 _Dina?_ Ellie immediately thinks. She tries to lift her head, but even with her surroundings in sight, her vision is turning more and more black. She barely has time to question whose voice is truly calling her name before there’s a thump ringing in her ear. Her neck went limp, and her cheek planted on the asphalt below her.

“Don’t worry. You’re safe,” the same voice reassures her. Her eyes are closed, but she experiences the sensation of being carried.

\---

“Where’d you find her?”

“Near one of the abandoned Hilton hotels. Our patrol saw a fire and wanted to check it out. It looked like she passed out after running away from some infected.”

“Thank you, Mia,” says a familiar woman’s voice.

Ellie’s eyes open, and she’s immediately overwhelmed by the light in the room. After adjusting her vision, she could see she was on a small twin bed with curtains to the left and right. Maria is standing in front of her, about a meter away.

“Hey, kid. I’m really glad to see you,” she says, coming closer.

“Maria?” Ellie sits up and then glances at her environment again. She realizes she’s in Jackson’s infirmary. After comprehending that, her face becomes warm and flushed. She hastily looks away. “I’m sorry.”

“For what? We’ve all been so worried about you.”

Ellie continues to hide from Maria’s gaze. She can still feel it on her, though. She thinks. _Maria’s just saying that to be kind. I doubt anyone was worried - let alone wishes I came back._

“Ellie,” Maria says.

“What?”

“I’m going to bring you some dinner - okay? I’ll be right back, but someone is always in the infirmary. Just call for help if you need it.”

Ellie, sighs. She closes her eyes, burying her face as close to her shoulder as she could. “Okay…”

She hears the sound of footsteps gradually getting farther away. Her heart is beating more quickly due to seeing Maria, so she tries her best to take in deep breaths. She lies her head on a headboard behind her and stares up at the ceiling. Above her are LED lights that shine in a lurid display of bright blue. Her eyelids flutter, eventually closing. She keeps them there.

A short time seems to pass until Maria is back. Ellie opens her eyes and sees her peering through the curtain with a styrofoam takeaway box in her hands. “Are you hungry?”

Ellie doesn’t respond. Maria takes in the girl’s blank expression but continues to her side, anyway. She places the box onto a small stool beside Ellie. “These are a few sandwiches I grabbed from the cafeteria,” Maria says. She opens the top and shows her the food contents inside.

Ellie stays silent and unmoving.

“I know you’re hungry. You look like you haven’t eaten in weeks, kid. Can you please just take a few bites?” Maria asks. She gives an unwavering stare at Ellie.

A few silent minutes pass before Ellie breaks it. “I’d honestly feel guilty taking it.”

Maria grabs one of the sandwiches and hands it to Ellie. “Please. They’re all yours.”

Ellie warily takes it. It’s warm and seems carefully made. She bites into it, enjoying the taste, and a few tears build up in her eyes. She stares down in an effort to make her crying less noticeable. As she does so, she coughs due to the dryness in her throat.

“Here.” Maria marches out, moving past one of the curtains. She comes back with an open bottle of water that she then hands it to Ellie.

Ellie places the sandwich down and grabs the bottle to quickly drink its contents. She tries composing herself, but the tears are already overwhelming her vision. She places the bottle down onto her lap and deeply breathes in.

A hand is felt across her back, rubbing against her with circles. “It’s okay. Tell me what’s happening”

“Maria…” Ellie breathes in and out deeply.” I’m so fucking stupid for running away and chasing after her. Why did I do it?” Her breathing evolves from partly stable to erratic, Ellie breaks into a sob.

“Shh…” Maria says. She sits on the edge of the bed and pulls the girl into a motherly hug. “The only thing that matters is that you’re home. I can’t believe I haven’t seen you in so long. You really know how to make me and Tommy miss sleep.”

The mention of Tommy sends a current of anxiety through Ellie’s spine. She bawls her fist up, shaking erratically as she remembers she could easily see him at any time. “Maria, I need to go.”

Ellie pushes herself away from the woman and starts to slide off the bed. She grabs her bag from the side of her bed and fervently searches around for her weapons, but her vision is hindering her. “Where’s my gun?”

“You really think I would tell you? Sit down.”

“Where is it?” Ellie screams.

From the blur of tears, Ellie can see Maria’s eyebrows furrow as her once motherly expression turned into an austere one. “Sit down, child. I’m not going to argue with you. You know you’re too wounded to walk.”

Ellie bites her lip as she increasingly feels more and more panic. A blizzard of thoughts and stress go through her mind, but she pauses for a moment in an attempt to control herself. As she does so, a memory of Dina pops into her head.

“Breathe, El,” she recalls Dina saying. Her once girlfriend used to sit by her side, helping her through the panic attacks she so frequently experienced after her second to final encounter with Abby. Even after she developed debilitating PTSD, Dina was still patient and calm handling her. It made so much of a difference, so she indulges in attempting to recreate Dina's soothing voice in her head. "Ellie... Ellie..." The imaged voice says.

“Ellie,” Maria sternly says, interrupting the invented voice of Dina..

Ellie breathes deeply, allowing a certain degree of serenity to be felt within her. As she composes herself, her vision becomes clear enough to see past the curtains to the exit of the infirmary. Her eyes focus on the doorway. Before she can register her actions, her feet jolt. She breaks into a run. 


End file.
